Voitinskii_Stormy_passage

14 Stormy Passage

of a government of murderers. We must show the workers and peas-
ants that the students are on their side.

The response was unanimous: to close the University indefinitely
and call on ail other students in Russia to do the same. This was by
no means the 6rst strike of Russian students, but it was the first
universal and purely political strike. Such a political strike of collège
students would be downright nonsense in a démocratie country, but
in Tsarist Russia, where people had no légal way to express their
wishes, the students felt that they, as the young génération of intel-
lectuals, were spokesmen for the nation and its spearhead in the
struggle for freedom. Students' riots were therefore a natural form of
national protest, and a universal strike of universities and collèges,
without a time limit, was the strongest form of such protest.

The meeting ended in solemn silence, interrupted by a loud call
from the rear of the crowd: "Do not break up, comrades!"

Behind the speakers desk hung a full-length portrait of the Tsar
in the red uniform of the hussars. A pôle rose to the top of the
painting and tore the canvas in two. "Away with the Tsar!" roared
the crowd. Bystanders rushed to the portrait and tore off pièces of
the canvas. I did my part and emerged with a pièce at least two square
feet.

The crowd, in high spirits, was moving toward the door when a
young man addressed me in broken Russian. 4 Tardon, but could I
see your pièce? Oh, it looks fine. . . . Must be from a sleeve or the
trousers. I have two pièces but they are not worth much — just
drapery. They won't show anything in reproduction. . . . Would
you kindly give me yours? This is for a New York paper." My pièce
of canvas, part of the Tsar's uniform, was my first contribution to
the American press.

NEOPHYTE OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

The University remained closed, but the library and the students'
mess were open and full of activity and rumors.

The news from the East became worse. The Russian army in Man-
churia was licked. The Baltic fleet sent to rescue Port Arthur met its
end at Tsushima. Political strikes and agrarian unrest were spreading
throughout Russia. Railroad workers walked out, declaring their
solidarity with the factory workers slaughtered in St. Petersburg.
Riots broke out in army barracks.

The government was panicky and vacillated more then ever be-
tween brutal reprisais and concessions. On August 6, the Tsar issued

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Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN